


Stuck

by starksborn



Series: Interspecies  Relations [1]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Angst, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-20
Updated: 2015-10-20
Packaged: 2018-04-27 06:41:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5037805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starksborn/pseuds/starksborn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once, Wrex thought she died while he was stuck under rubble.<br/>Once, she died while he was stuck in a lifepod.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stuck

**Author's Note:**

> I told myself I was going to write a quick thing before bed and it ended up being this. Also, I might have completely gotten the layout of the sr1 Normandy wrong, but that's minor, I believe.

     It's a full two days since the battle of the Citadel, and the Normandy's already been sent off on another mission. The team's had little time to recover, yet the Alliance insists on sending them to clean out remaining pockets of Geth. Shepard can't shake the feeling the insistence on the part of the Alliance has been spurred on with pressure from the Council, but either way, she doesn't argue. She's a soldier, and her job is to follow orders. Besides, after what they did to get the Normandy out of lockdown, she doesn't want to risk upsetting the powers at be any more than they already have.  
     At least it seems like saving the Council's life has made them quick to forgive the act of treason. Small favors, apparently.  
     For the meantime, Chakwas has put Shepard, Wrex and Garrus on as much bed rest as she can possibly force them to take. The push through Ilos and the Citadel took a lot out of the three of them, and Shepard had been running on fumes since Noveria. She got a good scolding from the doctor about getting proper rest and nutrition, and sternly told not to rely so much on stims in high-stress situations. Shepard took the lecture mildly, knowing Karin means well and cares about her, and promised that in the future, she'll take more time for herself when fighting indoctrinated Spectres.  
     Shepard retreated to her cabin as soon as Chakwas let her go, and has been content to go over mission reports from the Citadel battle. The casualties in both the civilian and military sectors are staggering, and it leaves a bad taste in her mouth and a twisting feeling in her gut. This doesn't bode well for any future Reaper invasion, and it's clear to her now that they need to do whatever they can to prepare, lest they all end up dead and gone like the Protheans.  
     She's pouring over a list of names of dead Alliance crewmen, looking for anyone familiar, when her door hisses open.  
     “Shepard,” Wrex says with a slight incline of his head. He's hovering on the threshold of her cabin, unwilling to just walk in without permission. Shepard looks up from the datapad in her hand, tearing her eyes away from the seemingly endless list of the dead.  
     “Wrex,” she says, setting the pad down and turning her chair towards him. She motions for him to come in and Wrex steps into the room. The door hisses shut behind him as he comes to lean on the corner of the desk in front of her. “What do you need?”  
     “Just thought I'd check up on you,” he says. “Helluva fight we just had with Saren.”  
     “You know in all the things I thought we'd find on this mission,” Shepard says, “I didn't think to add zombie Saren to the list.” Wrex laughs a little at that.  
     “You an' me both,” he says. “I thought a traitorous Turian was bad enough, nevermind a reanimated one.” Shepard chuckles a little and leans back in the chair, looking up at him and examining his face. According to Chakwas, Wrex had been the most difficult patient to deal with. He didn't like the idea of being told what to do, as much as she tried to tell him she was merely suggesting and that she cared about his health. He eventually brushed her off and stomped back down to the cargo bay and hasn't been seen since. In the little bit of time Shepard's spent with him since battling Saren, he's seemed more grouchy than usual.  
     Which, for Wrex, was saying something.  
     “You didn't have to come all the way up here, you know,” she says.  
     “Like I said, wanted to check in.” Wrex shrugs his shoulders, glancing away and down at the floor. Shepard cocks her head and a grin creeps its way across her lips. She stands from the chair, moving in front of      Wrex and reaching out to put her arms around him.  
     “If I didn't know better, I'd say you were worried about me,” she says. Wrex grunts in response.  
      “Good thing you know better,” he says. He puts his hands on her hips, and for a moment the two of them just stand there looking at one another.

     Shepard's relationship with Wrex is something that had been entirely unexpected, and completely come out of left field. She'd liked Wrex as soon as she met him, he was like Garrus in that the first conversation she had with him, she could tell there was more to him than what he let on. Wrex liked to pretend to be an old, surly Krogan that doesn't care about anything, but Shepard saw through that act pretty quick.  
     His station down in the cargo bay meant that she saw him a lot, what with him stationed right next to the armory. One of the first conversations between them was about weapon modifications. He came over and gruffly critiqued one of her ammo mods, and Shepard asked if he had any better ideas. Wrex's response was to dig one out of his armor locker, take the rifle out of her hands and disassemble the entire thing. He cleaned it, re-calibrated the sight, and slapped the mod on with surprising quickness.  
     “Here,” he'd said, shoving the gun back into her hands. “Maybe now you'll actually hit something.”  
     Naturally, this just caused Shepard to challenge him to a shooting contest. After that, they started keeping kill counts while on missions. To mix things up a little, Shepard made a new category specifically for shots to the groin and suggested that any shots to Krogan should count as double points on account of the quad.  
     Wrex agreed.  
     Their friendship seemed to have bloomed from then on, and the two of them gradually got closer and closer as the chase of Saren continued.

     One night, Shepard insisted the crew needed a break, and they all gathered in the mess hall with a couple bottles of booze and some playing cards. Shepard decided on playing poker, and Ashley and Kaidan got the tasks of attempting to teach Garrus and Tali how to play the game. Wrex pretended like he too was new to the concept, and ended up beating everyone in the first round. Shepard scolded him for playing unfairly, and made him sit out the next few hands until Garrus and Tali caught up a little.  
     The hands kept being dealt, and the alcohol kept being poured until the only people left at the table were Ashley, Wrex, and Shepard. Though Ashley's presence could hardly be counted considering she was face first into her cards and snoring up a storm.  
     Wrex shook his head and tossed his cards down, leaning back on his seat.  
     “I think it's time to pack it in, Commander,” he said. “I don't know where you're packing all this booze, but you still can't out drink me.”  
     “Not if I wanna wake up in the morning,” Shepard said, slurring her words only slightly and managing to suppress a drunken giggle. She pushed her chair back and stood, resting her palms on the table for a moment. Wrex gestured towards Ashley.  
     “What should we do with her?”  
     “Ah, leave her there,” she said. “She can sleep it off.” Wrex shrugged and stood, watching as Shepard pushed away from the table and attempted to step around a chair. Instead, she knocked right into it and nearly hit the deck face first. Wrex barely managed to get a hold of her and haul her to feet before he injured herself.  
     “You're absolutely plowed, aren't you?” he asked, looking mildly amused.  
     “Has the ship always been this spinny?” she asked. Wrex laughed, and in one swift motion picked her up and settled her in his arms.  
     “Better take you to bed,” he said, “don't want someone giving me shit for letting you pass out drunk somewhere.”  
     “You takin' me to bed, Wrex?” Shepard asked, grinning up at him. “Sounds like a fun time.”  
     “Not like that, Shepard.”  
     “Aw, what's the matter big guy, you don't like me?” Wrex stopped in front of the elevator, and Shepard reached out to press the button for him. He said nothing in answer to her question, and she pouted. “Well?”  
     “Well what?”  
     “You don't like me?”  
     “Shepard, you're a fine commander,” he said. “I never thought I'd come to respect a human, but you're as a good leader as any. Hell, you could give some Krogan Battlemasters a run for their money.”  
     “That's not what I meant,” she said. The elevator came, and Wrex stepped in. Shepard pushed the button for her cabin and noticed the way he was attempting to avoid eye contact. She went silent for the ride up to the next floor, and only decided to continue the conversation once Wrex got her into her cabin. He plopped her down on her bed and knelt down to help her with her boots.  
     “That offer is still open, you know,” she said.  
     “What offer?” Wrex asked, looking up as he set her boots by her desk.  
     “Taking me to bed.”  
     “Oh, well then job completed successfully,” Wrex said with a chuckle. Shepard frowned.  
     “Why are you beating around the bush?” Wrex sighed and stepped back over to the bed, crossing his arms over his chest and bearing down on her a little.  
     “Shepard,” he growled, “you're drunk.”  
     “I am...aware,” she said. She grinned at him, and reached out to _boop_ him on the snout. Wrex deflated a little, seeing that the angry Krogan bit wasn't going to work, and reached out to gently push her onto her back.  
     “You're stressed about Saren, and you're drunk on top of it,” he said. “I don't know if you're even aware of what you're offering.” Shepard opened her mouth to respond, and Wrex silenced her with a finger on her lips.  
     “That bein' said,” he said, “come talk to me about it in the morning. If you still wanna make that offer, we might be able to...work something out.”  
     That seemed to get her attention, and Shepard reached up to _boop_ his snout again. She promised to take him up on that tomorrow, and told him to be ready for her while he pulled her bed covers up and tucked her in. By the time he hit the lights and crossed the room, she was half asleep and fading fast.  
     The next day, Shepard found Wrex in the cargo bay in a rare instance when no one else was around, and proceeded to make good on her promise. She told him, plainly, that while she wasn't sure what either of them expected of one another or how well a Krogan and a human could even...interact, she was willing to try.  
     “I really...care about you, Wrex,” she'd said, standing in front of him and even ringing her hands almost nervously.  
     “Yeah,” Wrex said, voice slightly higher than normal. “Me too, Shepard.”  
     After that, the two of them kept insisting they were going to find time for each other without ever being able to. It wasn't until after Virmire they had a night alone in her cabin, and that was the first time Wrex ever saw past the stone-faced Commander and saw the person beneath the title. She'd gotten upset that night, first being angry and then settling for being almost sad while she chastised him for his behavior.  
     That, in turn got Wrex angry, and the two of them spent more than a few minutes arguing until Shepard finally yelled that he'd scared the hell out of her. That stopped Wrex mid-sentence, and Shepard had gone on to elaborate.  
     She'd said that when he wouldn't back down at first about Saren's facility, she'd been surprised that he didn't trust her. When he pulled a gun on her, she'd thought for sure she was going to have to shoot him.      She knew how Krogan tempers were, and she knew how Wrex's could be. With her reputation of getting the job done at any cost, with sacrificing her own people without a second thought, she'd thought for sure the altercation was going to end with her unloading into him.  
     Wrex didn't say anything for a long moment, he just stared at her with an unreadable expression.  
     “I trust you, Shepard,” he said. “You were right about the base.”  
     “It's not about being right, Wrex!” she snapped.  
     “Then what the hell is it about?” he growled, throwing his hands up.  
     “I thought this mission was going to cost me someone I loved,” she said.  
     “Well, we lost Kaidan,” he said. “I'm...that's unfortunate, by the way.”  
     “I don't mean Kaidan,” she said. “I meant you, Wrex. I thought I was going to have to kill you, that you weren't going to stand down and I was going to have to live with that somehow.”  
     Wrex went silent again, and this time she noticed he was having trouble making eye contact with her.  
     “So did I,” he finally said. “I guess that's why I got so mad. I thought...why would you do this to me, to my people. I wasn't thinking about what Saren would do with that army of Krogan, I just thought you were stabbing me in the back and I let it get the better of me.”  
     Shepard smiled at that, and moved across the room to put her arms around him.  
     “Don't ever do that to me again, okay?”  
     Wrex returned the gesture, resting his chin on the top of her head and squeezing her almost a bit too tight.  
     “Well,” he said. “I'll try.”

     They were making their way to Ilos when Wrex and Shepard finally got a real moment together. He showed up not long after they set course, and it was the first time she'd ever seen him out of his armor. He was wearing an undersuit, and holding a mug in his hand.  
     “Figured you could use some coffee,” he said, dropping the mug on her desk and moving to make himself comfortable on the edge of her bed.  
     “Thanks,” she said, picking the mug up. “You think we'll stop Saren?”  
     “I'm gonna rip that little bastard's crest right off his head,” Wrex growled. Shepard snorted so hard she nearly choked on her coffee, and set the mug back down. She got out of the chair and joined him on the bed, leaning her head on his shoulder.  
     “Always the optimist,” she said.  
     “So,” he said. “You mentioned once we uh, don't really know how this would work between us...”  
     “Yeah?” Shepard raised an eyebrow and lifted her head off his shoulder.  
     “Well, I figure we got some time to kill before we hit Ilos,” he said. “Maybe some steam to blow off.”  
     “You finally gonna take me to bed, Mister Urdnot?” she asked. Wrex rolled his eyes and stretched out on the bed, taking her by the wrist and pulling her to him.  
     Their time before hitting Ilos involved quite a bit of experimenting, and ended up being equal parts embarrassing and amusing at times. Wrex's weight and size with Shepard's considerable lack of in comparison made things harder to figure out than they'd expected, and at one point he asked her if she'd even “done this” before.  
     “Not with an eight hundred pound _lizard_ , no,” she'd said.  
     “I'll show you a _goddamn lizard,_ ” Wrex had replied, grinning at her and quickly pinning her against the mattress.  
     Eventually they found some ways to compensate for their size difference, and Wrex discovered there were more human erogenous zones than what some of the vids he'd seen had suggested.  
     It turned out that exploring Shepard's body and trying to find them all was a great way to take both their minds off the mission.

     The last mission, the last push after Saren has brought them even closer than they were, so Shepard notices immediately that Wrex has been acting off since they departed the Citadel. She frowns up at him and hugs him tighter.  
     “Wrex what's wrong?” she asks. He glances down at her and then away again, and Shepard purses her lips. “Wrex, come on I know something is bothering you.”  
     “I thought you died,” he finally says. “When that Reaper collided with the Citadel Tower, and we didn't see you. Garrus and I were stuck under the rubble and we couldn't get out, and I couldn't raise you on the comm. I thought you'd been crushed to death, or were impaled and bleeding out and I was too busy being stuck to help you. When you didn't come out at first, I thought I lost you.”  
     Wrex falls silent for a moment, and grips her waist.  
     “It scared me.”  
     Shepard smiles at him, reaching up to run a hand along the scars on his face. She leans up and kisses him on his snout and then nuzzles into him under his chin.  
     “Well, I didn't,” she says. “I'm not goin' anywhere, big guy. You're not gonna lose me.”  
     “Yeah,” he says. “You still gotta beat the rest of the Reapers. You're not allowed to go anywhere.”

     It's mere _weeks_ later that the Normandy gets ambushed, and Wrex finds himself stuck once again. Stuck inside a lifepod and listening to Shepard suffocate to death over the comm. He says nothing the entire time he's there, and as soon as they all get rescued, he books passage on the first ship headed towards Tuchanka.  
     For a while, Wrex is as unapproachable as a Krogan can get. He roughly takes control over clan Urdnot, and simply tells them how it's going to be. For a while, he decides that nothing has changed, and that all anyone will ever do is lie to you. Get you all buttered up and soft, kill you with kisses and by panting your name in your ear, and then take it all away.  
     For a while, he has dreams about listening to her die. Sometimes they start off good, with the two of them alone in her cabin and rolling around on that awful bed of hers. He'll finally get her in a good position, and be relishing the sound of her moans and his name on her lips when suddenly everything changes. It's like a flip being switched, and instead of panting his name and begging for him, she's gasping for breath and clawing at her own throat and begging for him to _help her_.  
     At one point, he just decides to stop sleeping. He puts himself into his people, into his planet, and starts planning to fix everything that's wrong with them. He's realized that there's nothing else in his life now, and he'll be damned if he's going to sit by and let his people slip through his hands like Shepard did.  
     He may have failed her, but he wont fail his people.


End file.
